Not Ideal

Matthew 4:1-11

After Jesus was baptized, he was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’"

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’" Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’"

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’"

Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

Early in our marriage - seeing that many families waste a lot of time trying to decide who is to blame for this or that problem, I said to my beloved: “Let’s not do that. Let’s not argue over who to blame. Let’s not waste time trying to decide who is at fault for things. Let’s just blame you.” 

This has worked out well for me.

I was trying to read a piece with a promising title for this Sunday. Tempting Fate. Looks good. Too long.

Goes off for some time on the blaming of Eve - Paul leaving Eve out of the equation; which she suggests Eve might not mind. . . 

Probably. But can Adam handle it?

I always say that one thing about the temptations of Jesus in the desert is that they don’t seem that tempting. Was the Devil really going all out?

I have been looking at David Lose’s book - Making Sense of the Christian Faith - our class will meet at noon on Wednesdays during Lent, drop in if you are in the neighborhood - and I really like his take on “original insecurity.” 

He does a riff on this in his Dear Working Preacher piece this week. 

That the original sin flows out of a sense that one is incomplete, that one needs more than they have, that all questions must be settled that all must feel just so. This, is inviting to me. Understanding the core sin of human being as idolatry - we see that our idol might well be an image of a “perfect life.” Where all questions are answered, where everything is settled, and where we have absolutely no sense of needing ANYTHING. 

Lose quotes a line I’ve never seen by Luther (without telling us where Luther said or wrote it, but I’m not complaining) “Martin Luther. . . once said he thought “ideals were from the devil.”” (Making Sense of the Xian Faith - page 70)

It’s tempting to go from here with a sermon on this text.